January 14, 2015 - 1:51 PM
TORONTO - A Toronto man who savagely killed his ex-girlfriend, hacked her body to pieces and scattered her remains is seeking to challenge his second-degree murder conviction.
Chun Qi Jiang has filed a notice of appeal, alleging the judge overseeing the case "made several errors in law in rulings throughout the trial."
Jiang was convicted in June in the fatal stabbing and dismemberment of 41-year-old Guang Hua Liu, whose body parts surfaced in Toronto-area parks and waterways in the summer of 2012.
In his notice, Jiang says Judge Giselle Miller erred in "prohibiting the defence from challenging the 'identity' of who killed Guang Hua Liu in the house," and in allowing evidence that was unlawfully obtained by police.
He also claims Miller should have declared a mistrial "upon finding that the Crown failed to disclose key evidence."
Jiang is also seeking to contest his sentence, which he describes as "manifestly unfit."
The second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 to 25 years. At a sentencing hearing in August, Miller set his parole ineligibility at 18 years.
The judge said Liu's death in a "brutal attack" by an ex-boyfriend was an aggravating factor, as were Jiang's efforts to cover up the grisly slaying by destroying evidence and desecrating her body.
However, Miller said she also factored in that Jiang had no prior criminal record or history of violence.
Liu, a single mother of three who ran a massage parlour, had been caught in a love triangle that prosecutors alleged turned deadly after she rejected Jiang for his rival.
In his testimony, Jiang pinned the murder on his mother, saying the 66-year-old woman stabbed and dismembered Liu in a fit of rage over allegedly stolen jewelry. He admitted to helping her dispose of Liu's remains and cover up the crime.
His mother died of natural causes shortly after his arrest.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015